#jon burton

[latin-dr-robotnik]

Revealed! - Epic Unused Sonic 3D Knuckles Bonus Stage Music Demo

Never heard demo version of Knuckles Bonus Stage music that was unused in the game Sonic 3D. (A version was later used in Sonic Adventure for the "Pleasure C...

YES!!!!

Over the last few years, Jon Burton (the founder of Traveler’s Tales), started showing us on his YouTube channel some cool things and tricks about the games he worked on, specially Sonic 3D Blast and all its secrets. Back in 2017 he said he still had old music tapes featuring prototype songs composed by Jun Senoue, and last year, during a Top 10 Surprising Sonic 3D Blast Facts, he dropped one hell of a bombshell: not only Panic Puppet Act 1 was turned into the music for Sonic’s first act of Twinkle Park, but Pleasure Castle, the second half of the level, was a 3D Blast song too! (But they had to cut it due to space restrictions)

A lot of time has passed since, and Jon worked with SEGA to get the green light to show all those old song prototypes. But now we finally have it, WE HAVE THE OG PLEASURE CASTLE, MEANT AS A KNUCKLES SPECIAL STAGE MUSIC.

I can’t stress enough how happy I am right now. Pleasure Castle is my favorite Sonic Adventure song (and Twinkle Park best level, fight me), but now I need to correct myself: my favorite Adventure song is, in fact, a 3D Blast song!

This is such an awesome moment for Sonic’s history and its preservation.

[defconprime]

TREKMATCH! # 183 - DS9's "Empok Nor" vs 2013's Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite

LEGO BATMAN: THE MOVIE - DC SUPER HEROES UNITE

No this is not the theatrically released Lego Batman Movie, but a barely watchable straight-to-video adaptation of the cutscenes from the videogame Lego Batman 2. Yes, nothing quite as riveting as the cinematic sequences in a videogame made for children! The plot is that Lex Luther wants to become president of the United States but needs Joker's help rigging the vote. Hey, you shoulda just appealed to good ole xenophobia like your real life counterpart, Lex!

GRADE: F

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - "Empok Nor"

A very important piece of DS9 breaks but they can't get a replacement from the Cardassians because of the war and they can't replicate it because of plot device. It turns out there's a spooky abandoned twin of DS9 in unclaimed space, so Nog, Garak, O'Brien, and future tombstones head out to get the piece. While there Garak gets hypnotized by space gas and goes on a murder spree. Of course he and the station get fixed and everything goes back to normal, but I feel like if you get possessed by something and kill a coworker you shouldn't be allowed to go right back to work idk maybe I'm old fashioned.

GRADE: C+

Victory to Trek, but movies are still up 94-89!

[tinysamm]

The visual design of the environments in LEGO Dimensions is intentionally flatter and less detailed than other entries in the licensed game series. This is done to allow the variety of disparate characters to pop out in terms of their LEGO designs throughout play, without cluttering the screen with too many contrasting visuals. 

[blazehedgehog]

Have you watched any of Jon Burton's GameHut videos on youtube? Some really interesting stuff about the development of games like Sonic 3D Blast and Toy Story. Also, how do you feel about him working on a Sonic 3D Blast Director's Cut romhack?

I think once the “Sonic R v0.03″ video went up and it became clear he was using GameHut to dump all kinds of interesting curiosities from the archives of Traveler’s Tales, I couldn’t subscribe any faster. It’s fantastic he’s willing to be so open about this kind of stuff. Imagine how much weird, cool stuff never gets seen from other developers. Projects that get started but never finished, pitches that get rejected, etc. There are thousands of games we never knew existed.

Sonic 3D Blast: Director’s Cut is a wild proposition. I think what maybe blows me away the most is that, like, it’s easy forget these guys are probably incredibly smart. Because Jon Burton is the founder of Traveler’s Tales. The success they’ve had with the Lego games earned him an executive producer credit on all of the Lego movies thus far. And you picture a guy like that, and you think of a guy in a suit who is in meetings all day long, and to be fair he probably is.

But he got his start making games. Getting his hands dirty. Writing code. And you watch him trying to get a Sonic R prototype running in an emulator, and it’s like, he’s injecting memory addresses and doing all this stuff that for me, a “modern indie developer,” is completely and entirely over my head. Even from the perspective of being around the borders of the ROM hacking community via Sonic Retro and stuff, some of the things he’s doing are still over my head. He may as well be a sorcerer.

And that after all this time, after the company he’s built, the fame he’s earned (at least in some circles), he’s still passionate about game creation to do something like a “Sonic 3D Blast: Director’s Cut.” To dip in to 23 year old source code for a dead platform and dump new features in to that game, just for fun. That’s just… wow, you know? That’s fantastic. Tremendous respect to that guy.

I had a spiel here about needing to see it in action before I pass judgement, but in the few days it took this to get posted, a video went up detailing some of his changes.

They’re definitely interesting and on some level I’m glad he’s not just ditching Flickies entirely as a mechanic. That’s not to say hunting out enemies is some tremendously fun thing, but we already have a hack that gets rid of the Flickies. I definitely approve of pretty much everything in this video, from the enhanced controls to the improvements to the camera, power-ups, and more.

Consider my attention grabbed.

[onychaos]

Sonic R Review

Sonic and Tails catch wind of a “World Grand Prix” when they noticed that Doctor Robotnik has joined the “World Grand Prix” to win the Chaos Emeralds to take over the world. Knuckles and Amy find out about Robotnik’s plan and join up with Sonic to get the Chaos Emeralds before Doctor Robotnik has a chance to get them.

I’m using the Sonic Gems collection port of Sonic R to make this review, as I want to give my take on this, as a heads up.

Sonic R is your run of the mill 3D racing game. The game is basic, you have your “Grand Prix” acting as your main mode, and you have Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and Doctor Robotnik to play as, and each character plays a bit different.

Sonic is the fastest, Tails has the best turning but is slow. Knuckles… Can glide but that’s the important thing. Amy has a “boost” power that allows her car to go fast and she can drive on water, and Robotnik can attack.

With these characters, you get five tracks to play through. From Resort Island, Radical City, Regal Ruin, Reactive Factory, and Radiant Emerald. (See a trend here with the R?)

In each course, your goal is to place first but there are other collectibles to get during the race. You have the Chaos Emeralds and the five Sonic Tokens in the four courses. Each course is paired with a pretty catchy and cheesy vocal Soundtrack while it’s not the best, it fits the stages or courses, for the most part. There is another mode, “Time attack” Which holds 3 extra modes but not worth mentioning.

My thoughts

Now, I said each character plays a bit different. The controls are too loose and I feel that the courses were not designed with the loose controls in mind. Over time, you can get used to them but I feel that is awful design.

The tracks are good for what they are. I feel like the tracks were made with a different plan in mind, as the characters run into walls or the water far too easy and it can be annoying.

Sonic R looked nice at the time but like any game, it will age poorly but Sonic R has not aged too bad but the flaws that others had with the game will become more clear to see what has aged poorly.

But is Sonic R a bad game? Due to all the memes around this game, I can’t say it has helped it in any way. Sonic R is not a bad game, it’s just underwhelming for a racing game.

But other racing games back then did offer more but I feel that Sonic R missed the mark. With Sonic R, at best, you will find an average Sonic racing game that offers not much. And at worst, you have an ok Sonic spin-off game that may not be worth your time.

[vex-soluciones]

Sonic 3D Blast – Director’s Cut: El fallido juego de SEGA tendrá un «parche» de su creador (¡21 años más tarde!) Jon Burton está arreglando uno de los peores juegos de Sonic Nota Completa >> Sonic 3D Blast – Director’s Cut: El fallido juego de SEGA tendrá un «parche» de su creador (¡21 años más tarde!)

[nintencity]

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Jon Burton, founder of Traveller's Tales!

EXCLUSIVE Interview with Jon Burton, founder of Traveller’s Tales!

Earlier this week, I got permission to interview Jon Burton, Founder of Traveller’s Tales (Who made such games as Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, and the Lego games since Lego Star Wars.) It was conducted via email, and it was an absolute honor. The Interview. My questions are in Italics, Jon’s responses are in Bold. But the first thing I’d like to ask of you is permission to post this interview…

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[animesuperhero0]

At the beginning of February, Toonzone News attended the world premiere of LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Superheroes Unite, a new direct-to-video animated feature from Warner Home Video and Tt Animation. In attendance were voice actors Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor), Troy Baker (Batman), and Travis Willingham (Superman); along with director/producer Jon Burton and director…

Toonzone Goes to “LEGO Batman: The Movie” Premiere at the Paley Center for Media, NYC was originally published on ToonZone News